


The Tree

by DieLadi



Category: Original Work
Genre: Halloween, Horror, Human Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:48:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27417532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieLadi/pseuds/DieLadi
Summary: ...one human sacrifice every year... Every year a poor soul... And this year... it's me...
Kudos: 2





	The Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Der Baum (Halloween-Special II 2019)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21255209) by [DieLadi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieLadi/pseuds/DieLadi). 



> This is a translation to my german story "Der Baum", which you can find here on AO3. Please be aware that english is not my first language.

What I feel is fear. Pure, naked fear.

I shouldn't feel fear, because what I'm doing here - what they're doing to me - is a great thing. My sacrifice will save my people, my people from hunger and disease.  
My blood that will be spilled will ensure that our harvest is plentiful. There will be enough food.

Our grain, the emmer, the spelt, the wheat, which will sway in late summer in the warm sunshine and the tepid wind. That, harvested, threshed and ground into coarse flour and then baked in flat bread, tastes good and fills us up.

The goats, whose milk gives strength for our children, and whom we have to thank for goat cheese and butter.

The sheep, whose meat we roast over the fire and stew in our earthen pots, and whose wool, spun and woven, keeps us warm in winter.

Every year one of us is sacrificed to ensure that all this grows and flourishes.  
Oh, ye Powers. How can I possibly think objectively about all this...  
But I try to keep my mind occupied to calm the anxiety a little.

Here I am.  
It's dark. I'm freezing.  
When dusk fell and night fell, people left and left me alone. The priest took his songs away with him.  
And I am alone now.

The mist passes through the trees in thick clouds. This time of year, in autumn, the nights are cold. And I'm naked. And I tremble...  
The bark of the tree is pressing against my back.  
It's the big old oak tree to which the sacrifice is tied every year... the sacrifice. So it's me this year.  
Its bark is rough.  
It presses and rubs... ...I can't move, the ropes are so tight I'm tied with. It hurts with time. When a part is touched... continuously... without moving... and the touch doesn't change, then at some point it's like a pain.  
It gets worse. Worse!  
I moan.  
It doesn't stop.  
I... the moaning from my mouth is getting worse. And yet I'm so cold and it hurts... I'm afraid... I'm going to scream.  
Screaming!  
I scream, scream, scream...  
Tears come down my face, I sob, I beg.

Am I screaming of the pain...?  
Yes... No...  
It's the fear. It's the fear flooding everything!

I know what's in store for me tonight. And yet I don't know...

It's coming.  
He, uh...  
The entity...  
The Dark One...  
...the Guardian...

We have many names for... ...it.  
It's coming for me.  
It's going to cut me open.

It'll press its claws into the soft skin of my belly...  
Oh, ye Powers...  
and then it will... slowly... slowly... with a sharp edge into my stomach, my intestines will spill out... it will hurt terribly...  
It will cut me open. Tear me open.  
My blood will wet the ground at my feet.  
And then I will die.  
I hope it's quick.  
Slowly, if I'm unlucky... ...and I will, because this is how it kills.

It's all right.  
I'm proud that I was chosen. Then why am I shaking...  
I have an instinctive pulling in of my stomach, tensing my abs... ...as if it would do any good.  
What will it be like to be torn to shreds like that...

There! I hear a twig snap...  
A rustling in the branches...  
It's coming!

…

Is it coming?  
I don't want to! I'm so scared!  
I've waited so long and I don't want it to come.  
And yet I want it to be over at last.

The bark of the Tree still presses against me, my back is completely numb. My limbs, too. My fingers and toes are numb with cold. I have soiled myself... I feel so terrible, so miserable.  
Please, Gods, let it be over.  
Let me finally enter the glory of the heavenly gods... wonderful it is there, the priest said, and those who sacrifice themselves will experience all imaginable joys there.  
Please...  
please...  
please!!!

The morning is coming. It still hasn't come yet.  
I am desperate.  
I can't take it anymore.

Why can't it finally be over.  
I'm crying again.  
I feel so sick. My knees are weak. If I wasn't tied to a tree, I'd sink to the ground.

Please. You beings who protect this world, who created us humans and are now worshipped by us through our worship... ...please, help me!  
Help me!

Help me!  
Help!!!!  
Help me!!!!!

* * * 

It never came.  
How could it come, because this creature did not exist?

Kalisha, the sacrifice, died three days later at dawn from hunger, thirst, fear and cold.

The priest wrapped her body in animal skins and sank it in the bog with an old, honored ritual.

He told the people that the harvest would be safe for another year.

Next year he would choose a new sacrifice.


End file.
